Man promises pedigree dogs, dupes more than 30, held

Sakal Times

Saturday, 6 January 2018

The incident came to light after a complaint was registered by an elderly woman at Kondhwa police station. The accused was identified as Rajan Sharma, a native of West Bengal, who was residing at Siddharth Nagar in Aundh

Pune: A fraudster was arrested by the Cyber Crime Cell of the Pune police on Friday for duping 30 to 40 people across five states on the pretext of providing them pedigree dogs. The fraudster defrauded the people using e-commerce website Quikr.

The incident came to light after a complaint was registered by an elderly woman at Kondhwa police station. The accused was identified as Rajan Sharma, a native of West Bengal, who was residing at Siddharth Nagar in Aundh.

According to the statement given by complainant Rachna Popkees, she came in contact with the accused while surfing the Internet to buy a dog of a foreign breed. She found an advertisement on Quikr and contacted Sharma, who assured her that he will provide a Cocker Spaniel and asked her to transfer Rs 8,000 into his account. However, after receiving the amount, he didn’t deliver the dog.

According to the police, Sharma has defrauded 30 to 40 people across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Kerala. The accused used to assure his customers to deliver the dogs at their doorstep and asked them to make advance payments in his bank account.

The police said they gathered details about his address from the e–commerce company and arrested him. Two cellphones, one laptop, one dongle, five SIM cards and two debit cards were seized from the accused. The police have also registered a case against him at Yerawada and Hinjawadi police stations.